Hello, and thank you for taking an interest in our club. If you are thinking about joining our club, please read the information below to help you in your decision.

We are a national UK mountaineering club with a strong interest in alpine mountaineering, particularly in Switzerland. As you can see from the meets list and write ups, we are an active club, with a diverse and well attended range of meets, including a significant number to the European Alps and beyond.

Our club offers two categories of membership. The first is an affiliate membership, which is the basic membership category for all club members. People can also become ordinary members, which then additionally includes membership of a section of the Swiss Alpine Club. The club rates for the current year are given on the attached sheet.

Full SAC membership does bring a discount in some huts in the Alps (as does membership of other alpine organisations). In addition, there is a monthly magazine, Les Alpes/Die Alpen, and a SAC section Newsletter several times a year. If you are thinking of joining solely for obtaining hut discounts, please be aware that you would need to be using huts for at least two weeks each year, before this became a lower cost option than paying the higher hut rate.

Membership of the ABMSAC also provides affiliation to the British Mountaineering Council(BMC). This entitles members to purchase comprehensive mountaineering insurance through the BMC. You should note that membership of our club does not include any mountaineering insurance.

Our objectives are to encourage the natural progression to climbing in the Alps through membership of the Swiss Alpine Club and to provide opportunities as a British Club for members to meet together and enjoy mountaineering activities both in Britain and the Alps.

The Association organises a comprehensive programme of meets throughout the year.

During the winter months there is a series of meets in Scotland to make best use of any snow and ice conditions. During the rest of the year there are meets in England and Wales, typically in the Lake District, North Wales, Yorkshire, Dartmoor and the Peak District. These meets are based in climbing huts or bunkhouses.

The highlights of the year are the Alpine Meets. Every year there is a meet in the Alps based on reasonably priced hotel or self-catering accommodation. There is also a separate camping meet and at the end of the season an annual alpine walking tour using climbing huts and bunkhouses.

The Association does not provide any formal mountaineering or climbing training but members have a wealth of experience that they are happy to pass on to the less experienced.

During the winter The Association promotes a series of lectures in London. The programme is run in conjunction with the London sections of three other major mountaineering clubs.

We hold our Annual Dinner and AGM in Patterdale at the end of January/start of February.

There an Alpine Reunion Meet in the autumn. There is also an annual Hut Maintenance Meet, though this is not strictly a social event.

Publications

All members of the Association receive regular Newsletters via post or e mail to keep them up to date with activities and events. In addition the Annual Journal is published each spring with a full review of members’ activities over the previous year.

If you would like to join our club, the only stipulations we make are that you should:
• Have a genuine love of the hills and an interest in Switzerland and the SAC, and
• Have been on a club meet, before formally becoming a member of the club.
To cover this second point, once you let us know you have a potential interest in the club, we can then set up with you to attend one of our meets as a guest.

If, having read this, you would like to join us, please drop me an e-mail using the following link, membership@abmsac.org.uk and we’ll get in contact with you.
Many thanks,
ED Bramley - Membership Secretary

In 1909 eminent members of the Alpine Club considered that members who used Swiss Huts should do more to support the Swiss Alpine Club and so the Association of British Members of the Swiss Alpine Club was born.

Early members were so grateful for the chance to climb in the Swiss Alps that subscriptions soon raised sufficient funds to build a hut in Switzerland. This was completed in 1912 near Saas Fee. It was presented as the Britannia Hut to the Geneva Section of the Swiss Alpine Club - providing an historic link.

The Association currently has around 220 members scattered throughout the UK and beyond, many of whom also enjoy membership of the Swiss Alpine Club.

One of our members, James Bogle, has written up the history of the Association and this was published in 2005. If you would like a copy of the History please contact the membership Secretary.

BMC multiple membership refund form If you are a paid up member of more than one BMC affiliated organisation, you can reclaim the additional membership payments you have made. To claim a refund, please complete the form and return it to the BMC.
To qualify for a refund the BMC must receive your claim by the 30 June 2018.

Please note: if you have claimed back your multiple fees previously, there is no need to make a new claim. The BMC will check your data and provided all your organisations have paid your subscription to the BMC for the current year, they will send you an automatic refund after 30 June 2018.